Welcome to episode 42 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two VMware Solution Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we talk to Ethan Banks, co-founder of the Packet Pushers technical podcast network about his early career path and journey to career self-awareness.
Original Recording Date: 05-28-2019
Topics – Ethan Banks and the Journey to Early Career Self-Awareness
2:11 – Ethan’s Early Career Path

* Ethan Banks is co-owner and operator of the Packet Pushers Network with Greg Farrow
* Disclaimer: this interview kept Ethan up past his bedtime.
* Ethan was in Network Operations before making the move to doing Packet Pushers full time.
* His father gave him some helpful advice about “getting into computers” to go wherever he wanted, and Ethan ended up majoring in Computer Science (programming, algorithms, etc.). The program basically prepped students to be developers.
* Ethan gained experience as a classroom instructor and in the banking industry (electronic funds transfer, automated clearing house, bank teller) after college before going to Novell school.

* He moved to a new area with his family but could not find openings in the banking industry.
* Ethan saw an ad for Novell school which gave him a new career path.

* The company that put on the Novell school also did consulting and hired Ethan part-time, which eventually led to being Microcomputer Support Specialist for the City of Manchester, New Hampshire.

* Despite his background, he did not get to use his new knowledge and certification on the job as co-workers saw him as a threat.
* Ethan returned to consulting after a few months but left the City of Manchester job in a blaze of fire. He wrote the employer a letter telling them exactly what he thought of the experience.
* The work environment was not professional, but he did not handle the exit well as a young man.

* At one particular employer (a banking job before Novell school), Ethan’s manager cried in frustrated because of some of his actions. He made an offhand comment to the wrong person and nearly got fired (to a VP, actually).
* Ethan thought technical knowledge should trump all when it came to career advancement but quickly learned that was not the only requirement.

* John mentions the Dunning Krueger Effect to describe this type of behavior.
* People may not realize this until after being bitten a few times.

* Ethan speaks to the confidence element needed to be a consultant.

* While customer situations and problems may be similar, each one is unique in its own way.
* Sometimes you may not know exactly what you’re doing but hope you have the ability to pull it off.

19:16 – People Management and the Journey to Self-Awareness

* As you work with enough people, the brakes get put on naturally.

* Ethan had enough run-ins with managers who wanted to channel his energy in a different way than he was doing it.
* Having kids also helped.
* Ethan was hired as a manager for the New Hampshire government and was over employees with many years of experience and vast knowledge.
* Ethan realized there was no way to know everything in ...